Oct. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Steve Leuthold, whose Leuthold Core
Investment Fund has beaten 88 percent of its rivals in the past
five years, said he’s willing to consider investing in banks.

“We’re getting some of the bank groups that are rating
attractive at this time, so I will take another look,”
Minneapolis-based Leuthold said today in an interview on
Bloomberg Television’s “In the Loop with Betty Liu.” “You are
looking at values, and sometimes when you are trying to be a
value player, you must look beyond the short-term negative
fundamentals. We do not own any now, but it is possible.”

Leuthold, who bet on stocks before the Standard & Poor’s
500 Index started the biggest rally since the Great Depression
in March 2009 and has $4.1 billion under management, said that
the big diversified banks all over the world, such as Citigroup
Inc. and some regional institutions, are attractive.

The S&P 500 Banks Index fell 5.6 percent last week on
concern that problems with foreclosure documents and proceedings
could worsen the earnings outlook for the industry. The gauge
rallied 1.5 percent at 9:58 a.m. in New York after earnings at
Fifth Third Bancorp and Huntington Bancshares Inc. beat
analysts’ estimates.

Earlier this month, Leuthold told Bloomberg News that banks
are going to have continued margin pressures. “We really don’t
have much in terms of financials. There hasn’t been a great deal
of loan demand here and the spreads are not terribly attractive
for some banks,” he said on Oct. 7.

To contact the reporters on this story:
Rita Nazareth in New York at
rnazareth@bloomberg.net;
Betty Liu in New York.